Remembering a forgotten concentration camp

The gulf between a recreation park and a forgotten concentration camp sits at the center of this paper. In December 1941, 3985 Reich Jews were deported to Jungfernhof concentration camp located on outskirts of Riga. Only 149 persons survived. In 2017, the site containing more than one missing mass grave was resurfaced and transformed into a public park designated for leisure and recreation.

The Locker of Memory memorial project is an international, multimedia initiative dealing with the lost history of a forgotten site. Established in 2019, Karen Frostig, granddaughter of vicitims, worked with a team of historians, geospatial scientists, technologists to recover camp’s history. Project website features interactive timeline and map, 3-D tour of seven killing sites, thirteen audio tapes, interviews with five survivors, heirloom gallery, videos, organizational charts, essays, maps, and ERT imaging systems used to identify underground voids characteristic of mass graves.

Plans for naming memorial will begin with commemorative event. Combining ritual with ceremony, Frostig is designing a large-scale handcrafted Mourning Shroud used to sanctify the land as project transitions from research to memorial development. The paper examines 21^st century approaches to memorialization: What is the language of cooperation and repair, expressed by different stakeholders dedicated to restoring justice to a land bereft of memory? Who pays for a memorial in a country that is still grappling with historic issues of occupation? How do artists examine histories of perpetration and collaboration, formulate new and inclusive protocols concerning the language of truth and remembrance, pertinent to these times?